Virtual Disk Blueprints for a Virtualized Storage Area Network

• US 20150058555A1
• Filed: 08/26/2013
• Published: 02/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: KARAMANOLIS, Christos, SHAH, Mansi, BURNETT, Nathan
• Granted Patent: US 10,747,475 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/114
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0614 Improving the reliability of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0664 at device level, e.g. emulation of a storage device or system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

Techniques are described for storing a virtual disk in an object store comprising a plurality of physical storage devices housed in a plurality of host computers. A profile is received for creation of the virtual disk wherein the profile specifies storage properties desired for an intended use of the virtual disk. A virtual disk blueprint is generated based on the profile such that that the virtual disk blueprint describes a storage organization for the virtual disk that addresses redundancy or performance requirements corresponding to the profile. A set of the physical storage devices that can store components of the virtual disk in a manner that satisfies the storage organization is then determined.

Claims

1. A method for storing a virtual disk in an object store comprising a plurality of physical storage devices housed in a plurality of host computers, the method comprising:

receiving a profile for creation of the virtual disk, wherein the profile specifies storage properties desired for an intended use of the virtual disk;

generating a virtual disk blueprint based on the profile, wherein the virtual disk blueprint describes a storage organization for the virtual disk that addresses redundancy or performance requirements corresponding to the profile; and

determining a set of the physical storage devices that can store components of the virtual disk in a manner that satisfies the storage organization.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage properties include at least one of a capacity of the virtual disk, uptime availability desired for the virtual disk or an IOPS performance rate desired for the virtual disk.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining step further comprises consulting a database that tracks current states of the physical storage devices, wherein each of the plurality of host computers that houses at least one of the physical storage devices updates the database whenever there is a change to the state of its corresponding physical storage devices.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the database tracks at least one of throughput of the physical storage devices, IOPS of the physical storage devices, CPU cycles of the host computers and memory usage of the host computers.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the storage organization describes a distribution of data stored in the virtual disk in accordance with one or more RAID levels.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the storage organization describes a distribution of data stored in the virtual disk in accordance with erasure codes.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein components of the virtual disk that may be stored in the determined set of physical storage devices correspond to stripes in a RAID stripe set described in the storage organization and are each represented by a corresponding component object of the virtual disk within the object store.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

requesting host computers that house the determined set of physical storage devices to allocate storage locations in the set of physical storage devices for the corresponding component objects of the virtual disk; and

upon receiving a confirmation that a storage location has been allocated by one of the host computer, updating the database with a mapping of the allocated storage location to the corresponding component object.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the steps of:

monitoring the current states of the physical storage devices to identify any changes in the operation of the physical storage devices that would result in an inability of the virtual disk to satisfy the profile based the storage locations of the component objects; and

determining new storage locations for component objects that would satisfy the profile based on the current states of the physical storage devices.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions, which, when executed on a processor, performs an operation for storing a virtual disk in an object store comprising a plurality of physical storage devices housed in a plurality of host computers, the operation comprising:

receiving a profile for creation of the virtual disk, wherein the profile specifies storage properties desired for an intended use of the virtual disk;

generating a virtual disk blueprint based on the profile, wherein the virtual disk blueprint describes a storage organization for the virtual disk that addresses redundancy or performance requirements corresponding to the profile; and

determining a set of the physical storage devices that can store components of the virtual disk in a manner that satisfies the storage organization.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the storage properties include at least one of a capacity of the virtual disk, uptime availability desired for the virtual disk or an IOPS performance rate desired for the virtual disk.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the determining step further comprises consulting a database that tracks current states of the physical storage devices, wherein each of the plurality of host computers that houses at least one of the physical storage devices updates the database whenever there is a change to the state of its corresponding physical storage devices.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the storage organization describes a distribution of data stored in the virtual disk in accordance with one or more RAID levels.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein components of the virtual disk that may be stored in the determined set of physical storage devices correspond to stripes in a RAID stripe set described in the storage organization and are each represented by a corresponding component object of the virtual disk within the object store.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the operation further comprises:

requesting host computers that house the determined set of physical storage devices to allocate storage locations in the set of physical storage devices for the corresponding component objects of the virtual disk; and

upon receiving a confirmation that a storage location has been allocated by one of the host computer, updating the database with a mapping of the allocated storage location to the corresponding component object.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the operation further comprises:

monitoring the current states of the physical storage devices to identify any changes in the operation of the physical storage devices that would result in an inability of the virtual disk to satisfy the profile based the storage locations of the component objects; and

determining new storage locations for component objects that would satisfy the profile based on the current states of the physical storage devices.

17. A computer system, comprising:

a processor and

a memory hosting a module, which, when executed on the processor, performs an operation for storing a virtual disk in an object store comprising a plurality of physical storage devices housed in a plurality of host computers, the operation comprising;

receiving a profile for creation of the virtual disk, wherein the profile specifies storage properties desired for an intended use of the virtual disk;

generating a virtual disk blueprint based on the profile, wherein the virtual disk blueprint describes a storage organization for the virtual disk that addresses redundancy or performance requirements corresponding to the profile; and

determining a set of the physical storage devices that can store components of the virtual disk in a manner that satisfies the storage organization.

18. The computer system of claim 17 wherein the determining step further comprises consulting a database that tracks current states of the physical storage devices, wherein each of the plurality of host computers that houses at least one of the physical storage devices updates the database whenever there is a change to the state of its corresponding physical storage devices.

19. The computer system of claim 18, wherein the storage organization describes a distribution of data stored in the virtual disk in accordance with one or more RAID levels.

20. The computer system of claim 19, wherein components of the virtual disk that may be stored in the determined set of physical storage devices correspond to stripes in a RAID stripe set described in the storage organization and are each represented by a corresponding component object of the virtual disk within the object store.

21. The computer system of claim 20, wherein the operation further comprises:

requesting host computers that house the determined set of physical storage devices to allocate storage locations in the set of physical storage devices for the corresponding component objects of the virtual disk; and

upon receiving a confirmation that a storage location has been allocated by one of the host computer, updating the database with a mapping of the allocated storage location to the corresponding component object.

22. The computer system of claim 21, wherein the operation further comprises:

monitoring the current states of the physical storage devices to identify any changes in the operation of the physical storage devices that would result in an inability of the virtual disk to satisfy the profile based the storage locations of the component objects; and

determining new storage locations for component objects that would satisfy the profile based on the current states of the physical storage devices.